Middle School Football Coach Fired After ‘War’ To Have Hooters Party

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA - JANUARY 12: A general view of Hooters restaurant on January 12, 2007 in Seoul, South Korea. The famous US restaurant is preparing to open for the first time in South Korea on January 18. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

A Portland-area middle school football coach who said he was willing to lose his job rather than back down from plans for a team party at Hooters has lost his job. (Photo by Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

PORTLAND, Ore. (CBS SEATTLE/AP) — A Portland-area middle school football coach who said he was willing to lose his job rather than back down from plans for a team party at Hooters has lost his job.

The athletic director for the Corbett School District, Jean-Paul Soulagnet, sent a letter to parents Monday night telling them the end-of-season awards party the team voted to attend at Hooters was no longer a Corbett Middle School event.

KGW reports the athletic director also fired coach Randy Burbach for refusing to choose a more appropriate location.

“I’m not taking them there for the sexual overtones that the upset families are casting on the restaurant,” Burbach told KGW. “If they do as well as the Hooters did for my boys when they were twelve, it would be a great experience.”

Burbach said he would not bow to pressure to move the party, because he always told his boys to stand up for what they believe in.

“I’m not allowing myself to be bullied by the vocal minority is the example — is the war — I want to win,” he told KGW. “It’s the only war I can win right now.”

He believes Hooters is appropriate for families. The restaurant bills itself as “delightfully tacky,” and its waitresses wear skimpy outfits.

After refusing to change the venue, the Corbett athletic director wrote to parents:

“I spoke to many people over the weekend regarding the location of the event…Outside of a bar, tavern, or strip club where would be the next worse place…to take a middle school football team to?”

“Time after time the reply was Hooters.”

According to KGW, Burbach is still going to host the awards event at Hooters — but will remove the middle school name from the venue.